The partitioning of precipitation into green water (available to plants) and blue waters (contributing to streamflow and groundwater recharge) is an exciting but challenging question, especially in context of a changing hydrological world. The timescales at which water from rainfall and snowmelt become available to plants remain poorly understood. Environmental tracers such as stable water isotopes offer valuable insights into the pathways water takes - from precipitation to its ultimate fates as evapotranspiration, streamflow, or groundwater recharge.
This project is part of a 4-year EU Horizon project aimed at deciphering these complex transport pathways thereby providing novel understanding of the ecohydrological cycle in snow-dominated ecosystems. These process-based insights can then be incorporated into large-scale earth system models.
The successful candidate will apply a numerical model using a rich database of hydrometric and environmental tracer data in several places in Switzerland, Finland, and the Indian Himalayan region, to improve our understanding of water partitioning and its associated flow paths in these different landscapes. The overall aim will be to correctly partition blue and green water fluxes across different elevation gradients and validate these results using a combination of hydrometeorological and tracer data timeseries. We expect active involvement in field efforts (maintenance, data collection, establishment of new experiments) and laboratory analyses. As part of your job, you will contribute novel mechanistic insights to a larger project within an international consortium, involving 18 institutions across Europe and India. You will report through project and group meetings, conference presentations, project deliverables and publications and actively contribute to outreach efforts.
Fixed starting date: February 2025
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We look forward to receiving your online application with the following documents:
Please note that we exclusively accept applications submitted through our online application portal. Applications via email or postal services will not be considered.
Further information about the Department and the Group can be found on our websites.
Questions regarding the position should be directed to Dr. Marius Floriancic – floriancic@ifu.baug.ethz.ch and Dr. Harsh Beria - harsh.beria@usys.ethz.ch (no applications).
In your application, please refer to Polytechnicpositions.com